EIGHTEEN
Kassa
It was midmorning when I woke up. A glance at the clock beside my bed told me I had slept over twelve hours, but I still felt oddly tired.
Was this what a broken heart really felt like? This heavy feeling in the middle of my chest that made me want to stay in bed all day and gorge myself on mint chocolate chip ice cream? I didn’t like it, wanted nothing to do with it.
Maybe I could pretend like the day before had never happened and Gray and I could go back to being friends.
That stupid inner voice, the one that sounded like a total bitch and always made me face reality, rolled her eyes at me. Sure, she said with a snort. You and Gray can both pretend like he didn’t just see you naked and go back to the being BFFs. You can face him bringing his groupies around, hear him fucking them in his room back in the apartment in Cali, and not die a little more inside. Great plan, genius.
Damn it.
I wanted to stay in bed all day and sleep, but I had promised Jace and Kin that I would pick them up. Excitement at seeing my brother helped push my inner monologue down, and I quickly got ready. My hair was still damp, but it was a tangled mess. After brushing it out, I put it up into a knot on the top of my head, and then I grabbed my phone and my purse as I headed downstairs. There was no sign of Alicia, but she had work to do if she was going to take the next week off to spend time with all of us before we left.
From the kitchen, I heard Gray moving around and stopped short in the living room. I still felt too raw after what had happened the night before to face him. And, if he told me he was sorry one more damn time, I was going to punch him in the balls. He had completely ruined our moment together, something I had wanted to cherish forever.
After the night before, I was even more unsure if I wanted to move to Cali, either the next week or at all. Maybe we needed some time apart. If I saw him with the hordes of chicks he fucked around with, it was going to hurt even more now that I’d had a taste of what it felt like to be with him.
I went out the front door and then used my key to open the side door to the garage. I tossed my things into the passenger’s seat and backed out just as the door that opened into the kitchen opened wide. Gray was standing there in only a pair of sweats as he watched me leave, his handsome face set in hard yet sad lines. He looked pale under his natural golden complexion, but I refused to feel empathy for him as I turned my gaze away.
He was still there when I hit the button to lower the garage door and shifted gears.
I turned the radio on and cranked the volume up to distract myself on the drive to the airport. By the time I got there, Jace was blowing my phone up with texts. They had arrived twenty minutes earlier than expected and he and Kin were already waiting on the sidewalk outside the airport when I pulled up.
As I put the car in park and jumped out, all thoughts of what had happened with Gray the night before were pushed to the back of my mind. Jace was waiting for me, a huge grin on his face as he opened his arms. I jumped into them, my arms going around his neck and my legs around his waist.
He laughed as I held on for dear life, and he swung me around a half-dozen times. “Damn, but I’ve missed you,” he grumbled as he pulled his head back to meet my gaze. “You’ve grown up on me, Kas. And gotten even more beautiful. No wonder Gray has been so damn grumpy over you the last few months. He must have been going out of his head worrying about all those fucking pricks trying to mess with you.”
I rolled my eyes at him but grinned even more brightly, completely ignoring the mention of Gray. “I kind of missed you, big bro.”
His smile turned a little sad, and he hugged me against him again. “I kind of missed you too, little sis.”
A throat being cleared pulled us apart, and I laughed at the look on Kin’s beautiful face.
“I’m feeling a little left out here,” she grumbled with a wink.
“Sorry, baby.” Jace dropped me onto my feet and turned to swing her into his arms. “Better?” he said with a smirk before he kissed her lips.
“Not even close,” she said, rolling her eyes, and then she pushed away from him. Her arms wrapped around me tight, and she let out a happy sigh. “Much better.”
I hugged her back, even tighter than I had my brother. “I’m so glad you’re here,” I whispered close to her good ear so that Jace couldn’t hear.
Something in my voice must have alerted her, because she pulled her head back just enough to look down at me. Her blue eyes widened at whatever she saw in my own. “Hey, babe, can you put the bags in the trunk?”
“On it.”
With Jace at the back of my car, she pulled back a little more. “You okay?”
My shoulders lifted and fell in a hard shrug. “Not really.”
The redhead gave me another tight hug and then stepped back. “We’ll talk. I promise.”
Jace drove my car back to the house, and Kin and I left him to deal with their bags as the two of us went into the house. Gray was on the couch when we walked in, watching something on Sports Center, and drinking a cup of coffee. His head jerked up and those sand-colored eyes zeroed in on me.
“Kas.” The way he said my name while looking at me with that lost look in his eyes made me stop short. He stood slowly and took a step toward me before he noticed Kin beside me. “Hey, Kin.”
“Dude, when was the last time you slept?” She shook her head at him. “I thought you would be all kinds of happy with how crazy you had been to get out here to see Kassa. Now, I’m wondering what the fuck you’re on because you look like you’re coming down off of something hard.”